He's the hero for forging consensus on GST, popular in the Left Front and among his students, but industrialists are less than enamoured.
Major problems afflicting the national economy at the moment are unemployment, inflation and corruption, says Asim Dasgupta, former finance minister of Bengal.
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh has called off the meeting with empowered committee on value-added tax, scheduled for Tuesday.
Trinamool Congress candidate Amit Mitra, who is an economist by training and is pitted against West Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta in the Assembly polls, has said the state's financial condition can be improved with a flow of investments and expansion of existing industrial units.
They've proposed a sub-committee under the proposed GST Council or the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers to resolve any disputes in the tax's implementation.
Among the major projects affected are the proposed steel plants of Videocon, Bhushan Steel and the Abhijit group. Neeraj Singhal, managging director of Bhushan Steel, said it would be difficult to acquire land wihtout government support. The decisin would also impact a host of projects lined up by New Kolkata International Development, a special purpose vehicle promoted by the Salim Group of Indonesia and the Universal Success group.
In a telephonic conversation, Mitra explains to Namrata Acharya how the state is reeling under a huge debt, a 'legacy' of the Left government.
A eight-member central team, headed by Joint Secretary in Union Agriculture Ministry E K Majhi, will visit drought-hit districts of West Bengal on Wednesday.
Bihar deputy chief minister and finance minister Sushil Modi was on Monday elected the new chairman of the empowered committee of state finance ministers.
Modi, who also handles the finance portfolio in the Bihar government, replaces Asim Dasgupta, who had served in the post for over a decade since the formation of the body.
His resignation has been accepted by the Ficci leadership, which said that it "wishes him all the very best for another historical role in the impending and hugely awaited economic transformation of West Bengal".
As the Centre tried to build consensus on its proposal on constitution amendment bill, required for the rollout of GST, and even floated revised draft to please states, some states came out with alternative model that would not require the amendment of constitution.
Addressing the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee called for the inclusion of petroleum products in proposed goods and services tax so that sharp domestic price movements can be checked.
The state government decided to provide the subsidy to bus, minibus and taxi operators in the state effective from August 1, Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta told the Assembly while speaking on the West Bengal Appropriation (No 2) Bill, 2010.
Panel also demanded power to go for additional market borrowing than stipulated.
Seven more deaths were reported on Friday from interior villages of the flood-hit East and West Midnapore districts, raising the toll to 53, even as the situation further improved.
The state's debt burden increased to Rs 1,92,000 crore (Rs 1,920 billion), against Rs 1,48,110 crore (Rs 1,481.1 billion) in 2008-09 -- a rise of about 29 per cent -- state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta told the Assembly recently.
The Madhya Pradesh government on Monday presented an alternative model of the GST but some states immediately raised objections to it.
The resistance to VAT in Uttar Pradesh has been declining after the tax's success in 21 states.
About 6,500 persons were sheltered in 67 relief camps opened in various districts.
With 21 states agreeing to switch over to value added tax from April 1, finance minister P Chidambaram on Thursday asked the remaining states, including Uttar Pradesh and BJP-ruled states, to implement it and add a historic dimension to centre-state
The empowered committee on GST headed by West Bengal finance minister Asim Dasgupta has agreed to a dual structure of the proposed indirect tax regime, which is likely to be introduced from April 2010. The new tax regime would do away with most of the indirect taxes levied at the Centre like excise and services tax, and VAT and Octroi at the State level.
Twenty one states which have switched over to Value-Added Tax on Tuesday agreed to adopt uniform rates for industrial input, capital goods and essential commodities like medicines, salt, bread and PDS items.
An official panel on Tuesday ruled out any increase in value added tax (VAT) rates as part of a package to compensate states on account of revenue loss due to a one per cent cut in Central Sales Tax that was to have happened in the beginning of this fiscal.
Seeking to allay fears of the trading community, the Empowered Committee on Value Added Tax on Thursday said there would no 'inspection raj' when the new state-level tax regime comes into effect from April 2005.
The meeting of the Empowered Committee of Finance Ministers of States and Union Territories began with some states demanding that they be allowed to charge service tax on certain items pending a decision on the implementation of VAT.
While West Bengal's debt burden stands at about Rs 1.92 lakh crore (Rs 1.92 trillion), Uttar Pradesh has a loan burden of Rs 2.21 lakh crore (Rs 2.21 trillion) and Maharastra Rs 2.08 lakh crore (Rs 2.08 trillion), while the central government has a debt burden of Rs 38 lakh crore (Rs 38 trillion), Dasgupta told the West Bengal Assembly on Monday.
The empowered committee of state finance ministers on Monday said the Value-added Tax will be implemented from April 1, 2005, even if Uttar Pradesh does not fall in line.
The empowered committee of state finance ministers for implementation of value added tax would meet in first half of January 2004, to decide on the implementation of the new tax system.
The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday approved the biggest tax reform since Independence.
The empowered committee on value-added tax will meet the finance minister in mid-July to discuss the 'roadmap' for the introduction of the new tax regime, after which it will be taken up with political parties for a national consensus.
Ready with the "groundwork", the Empowered Committee on value-added tax is likely to press for President's nod on VAT Bills of at least nine states by May 25
The crucial meeting of the empowered committee of state finance ministers on value-added tax began in New Delhi on Wednesday to resolve all pending issues to ensure smooth implementation of the new tax regime from June 1 this year.
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